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Thursday, April 25, 2002

By Mike White, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

SCHOOL: McKeesport

WHO IS SHE? A 5-foot-7 freshman sprinter.

LAST WEEK: In a dual track meet against McGuffey, McReynolds won the 100-meter dash in 12.2 seconds, the second-best time in the WPIAL this season and the top time in Class AAA.

AMONG THE BEST: McReynolds also runs the 200, and her time of 25.8 earlier this season is the second best in the WPIAL. McReynolds has some experience in national competition, too. At last summer's Junior Olympics national championship, she finished 20th in the country in the 100 for the 13-14-year-old age group.

"I like the 100 better because it's easier," McReynolds said. "Sometimes after I'm done running the 200, I get really dizzy and can't walk. It's a tough race."

SHE HAD A REPUTATION: Lou Hegedus, McKeesport's sprint coach, had heard of McReynolds' running talent the past two years. "All these kids were saying, 'There's this fast girl coming up,'" Hegedus said. "But you know every kid thinks they're fast. So I saw her one day and asked her how fast she could run the 100. She told me 12.4. I thought she was making a mistake. Then, I checked it out and found out it was true. I was a little excited."

STARTING OFF: McReynolds has been working on her starts. Until this spring, she never used starting blocks. She used to start races in the standing position. "I didn't know how to use starting blocks and I didn't like using them," McReynolds said. "Now I'm used to them and I've gotten better with my starts."

Hegedus said, "One of her strong points is she's so naive. She just runs. Her starts are getting better now. Up until this spring, her starts were non-existent. We're working on everything piece by piece. We have four years for it."

LIKE SWIN? Hegedus said McReynolds reminds him of Swin Cash, former McKeesport girls' basketball star who was the second pick in the WNBA draft last week. Cash tried track and field for the first time her senior year at McKeesport, and won the WPIAL Class AAA 100 hurdles championship and finished third at the PIAA championships.

"Ninety-nine percent of Swin's track success was just from pure athletic ability," Hegedus said. "Cassie has that. She has the God-given gifts. She just needs to work on the fine-tuning. I see big things for her in the future."

SHE'S A POET: McReynolds writes poetry as a hobby. She said she has written 200 poems in the past year. "I just write about my feelings, how I feel about someone else, my relationships, my friends and my life."

THE FUTURE: WPIAL and PIAA championships could be part of her future. Hegedus believes McReynolds has an excellent chance to win the WPIAL Class AAA 100 this season.

"I also could see her getting a medal [top eight finisher] at states this year," Hegedus said. "First place? No. But next year and the year after, she could definitely win states."

SCHOOL: Mt. Lebanon

WHO IS HE? A 6-foot-4 junior and one of the top volleyball players in the WPIAL.

SEASON: Bluemling plays setter and inside hitter and is one of the main reasons Mt. Lebanon is the No. 1-ranked team in the WPIAL coaches' poll. The Blue Devils are No. 7 in the state.

HE SAID IT: Highly successful North Allegheny Coach Bob Miller said Bluemling was one of the best players he's seen in the WPIAL this year. "He just does a lot of things for their team and really handles himself well," Miller said.

HE DIGS VOLLEYBALL: Bluemling also is a starter on Mt. Lebanon's basketball team that made it to the WPIAL Class AAAA semifinals this past season. In Bluemling's pre-teen years, he thought basketball might be his best sport.

"In seventh and eighth grade, basketball used to be my favorite sport," Bluemling said. "I still like it a lot. But a 6-4 inside player isn't that great for college basketball. I'm kind of skinny, too."

Bluemling played competitive volleyball for the first time as a freshman.

"I started playing Junior Olympic volleyball the summer after my freshman year," he said. "That's when I started to love volleyball a lot."

SPORTS FAMILY: Bluemling is the youngest of Tom and Cathy Bluemling's four children. Tyler, 19, was a standout basketball player at Mt. Lebanon and now plays for Duquesne University.

"He stayed with basketball, but he could've been a really good volleyball player," Travis said of Tyler. "But he was such a good athlete he could've been good at any sport."

Another brother, Cory, 23, was a standout volleyball player at Mt. Lebanon in the mid 1990s. Katie Bluemling, 25, is a former team captain of the women's volleyball team at the Naval Academy. The Bluemlings' mother, Cathy, coaches Mt. Lebanon's junior-high girls' volleyball team. Their father, Tom, is Mt. Lebanon's highly successful girls' soccer coach. Travis used to play soccer, but gave it up after eighth grade.

"That didn't bother my dad," Travis said. "He likes basketball a lot. He likes all sports."

THE FUTURE: With his size and ability, Bluemling would seemingly be a college prospect next season. He believes a key to his future will be how well he plays for the Pittsburgh Renaissance Junior Olympic team in the summer. "I'd love to play in college," he said. "But it's really all up to this summer. The Junior Olympics in the summer is when the colleges see you play."